Getting your work in front of a potential client’s eyes can be challenging. In this article, we'll show you how to:
- Add tags and descriptions to each design in your portfolio
- Optimize those tags and descriptions to increase your visibility in designer search
1. How to add tags and a description
When adding a design to your portfolio, you'll be prompted to edit the design details. This is where you can crop the design's thumbnail, improve the title and—most importantly—add tags and a description to boost your discoverability on 99designs.
Once you're satisfied with the details you've included, simply hit save and your design will appear in your portfolio. You can edit it at any time by clicking on the design in your portfolio and selecting the "Edit design" button.
2. How to optimize your portfolio designs
Design descriptions
A good design description explains your thought process and how you have solved a design problem. It also provides potential clients with context and helps them connect with your design.
Pro tips for writing a great design description:
- Make sure it’s clear and concise
- Explain the meaning behind your design, so clients understand the context
- Include a sentence or two about the client and why your design is the best fit
Design tags
Tags make your work easily discoverable by clients searching for a particular term. We recommend using 5 - 10 tags to describe each design and to only use the singular form for each term. We account for both singular and plural automatically (use the term "cat", not "cats").
Pro tips for great design tags:
Think about it from the clients' perspective. If a potential client is looking for a sci-fi logo for his video game, he might search for "astronaut", "space", "masculine", or "sci-fi".
Use accurate and specific tags that clearly describe your design. For example:
- Main elements of the design (mountain, tree, dog)
- Design type (pattern, wordmark, watercolor, digital painting)
- Style (bold, vibrant, flat, playful, retro)
- Themes or feelings (dark, humor, passion)
- Genre (biography, children, science-fiction)
- The dominant color of the design
- Tools or apps used (Affinity, Adobe Illustrator, Sketch)
- What the design is used for (iOS, album art, movie poster)
Avoid irrelevant and overly generic tags like "best logo", "brilliant" or "unique". These will not be useful in search and may turn clients off from your work.
Only add category and industry tags that aren't listed on 99designs. Site categories (business card, logo, etc) and industries (art, food, tech, etc) are automatically added to your tags.